Town boss Paul Jewell is waiting on flu victim Jimmy Bullard ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup tie at his former club Hull City. The Blues are short on central midfielders for the trip to the KC Stadium with Lee Bowyer and Keith Andrews injured and Andy Drury cup-tied.

Jewell said: “We’ve got a few injury problems. Jimmy’s still ill, he’s come in today but he’s had the flu and it’s knocked him for six.

“He was pretty bad when I spoke to him on Monday morning, I spoke to him again yesterday and he’s still very weak. Hopefully he’ll get better, so I’m not going to rule him out yet.”

If well, Bullard will probably come into the middle of midfield with Bowyer picking up a groin injury against Nottingham Forest on Monday and Drury having played for Crawley in the FA Cup this season: “Lee Bowyer’s injured for two to three weeks and Andy Drury’s cup-tied.

“Jason Scotland’s got a tight hamstring, so we have got a few injuries but we’ve still got enough players capable of going there and putting on a good performance.”

Keith Andrews’s loan spell is up after the weekend but the Irishman, who the Blues are keen to sign on a permanent basis, will be unavailable due to his torn hamstring: “He’s got his hamstring and that will rule him,” Jewell said.

The Blues boss confirmed that youngster Luke Hyam could come into his thoughts for the first time since the Carling Cup tie against Northampton in August.

Why are people complaining? There were so many posts suggesting dropping the old midfielders and trying out younger players and it looks like it will happen this weekend, even though PJ's hand was forced. What's wrong with that?

I hope it works out as a cup run is one way to pull this season out of the mire.

How to go from being overrun with central midfielders to being short in 1 easy lesson. 1 Sign up a load of old crocks. 2 Let Andy Drury become cup-tied. 3 Release Colin Healy. 4 Drag our feet over signing Kieth Andrews. 5 Be afraid to give the youngsters a chance. Happy days.

Tractor man if you are good enough you are big enough - we have talented young players at the club being ignored by the idiot in charge we have become the laughing stock of the league and gates are going to dwindle give the youngsters a go they can't do anyworse than PJ's oap's- IF IT NEEDS A LOSS OF REVENUE TO GET A NEW MANAGER SO BE IT BECAUSE THATS WHATS COMING ME

Bullard time to say bye bye, go and have a drink or two or three or four or five or six and then leave Ipswich Town your a waste of space being unfit to play all the time? We can then replace you with a player who wants to play and make a name for himself and be proud to play for Ipswich fc